How to stop the baby talk

It may be cute when a toddler mispronounces a word or can't say certain letters, but will it be so adorable when they start school and try to learn, fit in and be understood? Fiona Baker asks the experts for their advice about when to take action on baby talk.

A parent’s role is crucial in their child’s speech development.

While mispronouncing words is ever-so-cute experts say that it’s in our child’s best interest for adults to model proper speech around their children – not lapse into baby talk.

No matter how tempting it can be to lapse into “goos” and “gaas” around young children, speech pathologists, backed by growing research, are urging adults to resist engaging in “baby talk”.

“Pronouncing words incorrectly or using lots of made-up words is not going to teach a child language skills, and it provides a poor speech model for kids,” Adelaide speech pathologist Liberty Gates says.

“What children learn about communication they learn from their parents. The parents’ role is so important in helping their child develop the language skills which are so necessary for them to get on in the world.”

Pint-sized partners

When parents engage their child in fully-fledged conversations from a young age, the child is given a head start in understanding what’s being said to them at school, according to recent Dutch research. The way in which parents address children between the ages of three and six years will have a major influence on their overall language acquisition, according to the researchers. They found that if children are given the opportunity to make meaningful contributions in conversations with their parents, they often use characteristics of “academic language” – the language used by teachers, even in primary school.

What makes a child even more proficient at understanding this teacher-talk is the extent to which parents read to their children, tell them stories and hold conversations about interesting subjects. Liberty agrees to a certain extent with the research but says it’s a bit much to expect a young child to be a fully-fledged conversation “partner”. “Yes, we should use simple, correct and concrete language with our kids, but the conversations, vocabulary and sentence structure should be age-appropriate,” she says.

“It’s great for young children to observe and listen in on adults talking, because they can learn important conversation skills, but I wouldn’t recommend talking to them as though they were adults.”

Not just what you say

Australian research has found that the exaggerated tone of speech mums naturally use with young children – often called “motherese” – is key to building a child’s ability to understanding and creating sentences of his own. “We use changes in pitch and rhythm when we talk to children and we emphasise important words. This is what children usually learn and produce first,” says Professor Katherine Demuth, director of the Child Language Laboratory at Sydney’s Macquarie University.

“A child learning their first language is like an adult learning a second one – you have no idea what’s going on and it’s just one long speech stream. “Child-directed speech helps unpack this for children and gives them the tools to help them identify sounds, syllables and finally words and sentences.”

One-on-one time

Gates has this advice for all parents on how to encourage children to be good communicators, both as speakers and listeners: “I think the most important thing for parents is to set aside some quality one-on-one time to spend with their child using activities that promote communication, like toy play, games, books, role play, colouring in,” she says. “Ask who, what, where, when, why questions and let the child talk about what they are doing and use their imagination.”

Family talk-fests

“The other activity every child will gain from is spending time talking as a family – like around the dinner table,” Gates says. “This is really beneficial to help even very young children learn about conversation, turn taking, adult intonation, humour and how conversation topics flow.”